Illegal border crossings at record lows as Trump crackdown spreads [View all]
Source: USA Today
Updated June 8, 2025, 3:58 p.m. ET
SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico ‒ The U.S.-Mexico border used to buzz with illegal migration at a scale President Donald Trump called an "invasion." Now soldiers surveil the desert from military vehicles, Border Patrol radios are silent and illegal crossings have fallen to record lows.
Reaching far beyond the border, deep into the country's heartland, Trump insists America is under "invasion" and has continued to invoke wartime powers to stop it. He has transformed the borderland into a military base, made arrests by masked agents a common sight in America and packed detention centers with immigrants, the vast majority without criminal records. He's now trying to take control of the California National Guard to crack down on immigrants and the protesters trying to defend them.
Trump's aggressive actions – and protestors' increasingly violent opposition – have touched off a furious national debate about civil rights, the rule of law and what the word "invasion" really means.
Trump is known for his verbal flourishes, but declaring an "invasion" in numerous executive actions is one way to unlock extraordinary federal authorities, often reserved for wartime, said Jessica Vaughan, of the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies. "It was not just meant to rile people up, or to just be used as a melodramatic description, but it was meant to trigger a certain response under certain authorities," she said.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/08/trump-invasion-border-crossings-wartime-powers/83730925007/
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